Chapter 2. Using the mount Command
On Linux, UNIX, and similar operating systems, file systems on different partitions and removable devices like CDs, DVDs, or USB flash drives can be attached to a certain point (that is, the mount point) in the directory tree, and detached again. To attach or detach a file system, you can use the
mount or umount command respectively. This chapter describes the basic usage of these commands, and covers some advanced topics such as moving a mount point or creating shared subtrees.
2.1. Listing Currently Mounted File Systems
To display all currently attached file systems, run the
mount command with no additional arguments:
mount
This command displays the list of known mount points. Each line provides important information about the device name, the file system type, the directory in which it is mounted, and relevant mount options in the following form:
device on directory type type (options)
By default, the output includes various virtual file systems such as
sysfs, tmpfs, and others. To display only the devices with a certain file system type, supply the -t option on the command line:
mount-ttype
For a list of common file system types, refer to Table 2.1, “Common File System Types”. For an example on how to use the
mount command to list the mounted file systems, see Example 2.1, “Listing Currently Mounted ext3 File Systems”.
Example 2.1. Listing Currently Mounted ext3 File Systems
Usually, both
/ and /boot partitions are formatted to use ext3. To display only the mount points that use this file system, type the following at a shell prompt:
~]$ mount -t ext3
/dev/mapper/VolGroup00-LogVol00 on / type ext3 (rw)
/dev/vda1 on /boot type ext3 (rw)